New Car Registrations Continue to Grow in November

New car registrations in Europe EU27 + EFTA) rose 26.6 per cent to 1,182,082 in November 2009, a far cry from the 25.8 per cent drop in the same month last year. Western Europe’s increase of 30.6 per cent contrasted with a 16.7 per cent drop experienced by the new EU Member States and reflects the impact of fleet renewal schemes in a number of main Western European markets. The UK market, for instance, shot up 57.6 per cent to 158,082 new registrations in November – although, admittedly, November 2008 was the month of steepest decline during the 15-month run of falling volumes between May 2008 and June 2009. Scrappage accounted for 21.6 per cent of all new car registrations during the month.

“The increase in new car registrations in November reflects the positive impact of the Scrappage Incentive Scheme, customers avoiding the VAT increase in January and the very difficult conditions we experienced a year ago,” said SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt. “SMMT is urging government to use its Pre-Budget Report to sustain the recovery and generate business confidence by stimulating demand in key parts of the new vehicle market.”

From January to November, Europe’s new car market shrunk by 2.8 per cent to 13,406,382 new registrations, composed of -0.7 per cent in Western Europe and -27.4 per cent in the new EU Member States. UK registrations fell much more sharply that the Western European average, dropping 8.8 per cent between January and November. A total of 2,023,104 vehicles were registered in the UK during this time.